The IHDA is interested in how its customers and partners use the current version of the site, and is offering a short, anonymous survey that will take five to 10 minutes to complete.

For each question, IAR members will be asked to select the response that is most applicable. Answers will be kept completely confidential. The survey results will be reported in a summary format, so no one will link specific people to their responses. Since comments will be reported verbatim, survey participants are asked to avoid identifying information in the text comments section.

For $40, Illinois real estate professionals can secure a place for themselves at the Illinois Association of REALTORS®’ 39th annual Capitol Conference and Lobby Day on April 14 in Springfield.

Registration gets you in to the Legislative Briefing and Lunch that begins at noon, followed by Capitol visits at 1:30 p.m. and a reception from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Hilton Springfield.

In 2014, more than 450 members participated in the Capitol Conference, visited the Capitol and met with selected officials. IAR’s leadership team met with many of the state’s top lawmakers, including the House majority and minority leaders as well as the Senate majority and minority leaders.

IAR’s governmental affairs team is sorting through the more than 6,000 bills that have been filed in the General Assembly.

As of just before noon Friday, there were 2,027 Senate Bills and 3,986 House bills filed. Of course, IAR’s lobbyists go through all of them to see if they have a bearing on REALTORS® and their clients. You can read more about the week’s Statehouse news in the IAR State Capitol Report. (Members only)

Assistant Director for Legislative and Political Affairs Julie Sullivan said more bills are expected. The government affairs team is putting together a report next week on bills that fall into the good, bad and ugly categories.

Although IAR Members were able to get answers to a number of other questions from the IAR Legal Services team, anyone interested in real estate could benefit from these questions, answers and news updates.

1. Q. The federal ‘Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act’ expired on Dec. 31, 2014. Is there a similar Illinois law that protects tenants when their leased property is foreclosed?

A. Yes. In 2013, an Illinois law was enacted, giving tenants similar rights to the federal law. Generally, bona fide leases for residential property must be allowed to go to the end of term, or if the lease is month-to-month, it must give a 90-day notice before eviction. The Illinois law contains specific definitions and some exceptions.

2. Q. A company website/portal has Illinois real estate for sale and is soliciting bids for property it does not own. The company is licensed for real estate and auctioneering in California but not Illinois. Must this company be licensed in Illinois to auction the sale of real estate?

A. Based on these facts, the California company doing business with regard to Illinois real estate would need an Illinois real estate broker license to auction property owned by others for compensation. Complaints would need to be filed with the Enforcement Section of the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) at http://wwwidfpr.com/Banks/CONSUMER/FORMS/RealEstateComplaints.pdf.

3. Q. How do we advise tenant clients that qualify for medical marijuana when their landlord prohibits smoking indoors?

A. Landlords may still prohibit smoking indoors. Properly certified patients wishing to use medical marijuana indoors may need to use a smokeless form of the drug. See www.iar.org/publications for articles and webinars on this subject.

4. News on eavesdropping. The only type of eavesdropping allowed in Illinois without consent is video in public areas (it is prohibited in private areas like a bathroom). Effective Dec. 30, 2014, when conversations are expected to be private, audio recording requires the consent of all parties. However, it is unclear whether a conversation in a listed home should be considered private, even if a sign about surveillance recording is posted. Practically speaking, IAR recommends REALTORS® representing sellers get consent or post a sign. REALTORS® representing buyers should not discuss anything with regard to the listed property until off the premises.

5. News on commercial drones. Although the commercial use of drones is presently prohibited by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) without an FAA-issued permit, it has proposed new rules that should provide for permitted commercial use of small drones if certain requirements are met. Those proposed rules are in the comment period, so they are not in effect, and it will still be quite some time before the rules become final.